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| Henry Fonda & Lucille Ball make a really engaging couple as widowed army people who marry and mix their already massive households, in 1968’s “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
I am a sucker for household
comedies like Cheaper by the Dozen,
and grew up on The Brady Bunch. I noticed
1968’s Yours, Mine and Ours as soon as or
twice on TV as a ‘70s child. I favored it so much, however by no means revisited the blended
Beardsley household as an grownup, as a result of I assumed it would not reside as much as my childhood
recollections. Effectively, I used to be pleasantly stunned, whereas re-watching for
this evaluate. Regardless of some typical dated conventions, Yours, Mine and Ours remains to be heat and humorous, and never too sappy.
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| I used to be amused that ’68’s “With Six You Get Eggroll” used the identical coloring crayon opening credit as “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
For comparability, I
tried watching the same With Six You
Get Eggroll. This too got here out in ‘68 and starred America’s different veteran
sweetheart, Doris Day. It was painfully unfunny, regardless of Doris and a enjoyable solid.
It is plastic plot and humor was extra akin to The Brady Bunch, which aired the yr after. Yours, Mine and Ours is certainly not The Beardsley Bunch! The troubles and tribulations of mixing two
households run by means of the whole film, although by the tip, they’re happier and
settled. I appreciated that the children seemed like actual children, not Brady Bunch
dolls, although a few the teenager actors have been employed for his or her attractiveness,
little doubt.
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| Lucille Ball as Helen North and her gang of youngsters, in 1968’s “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
The humor in Yours, Mine and Ours comes from the
actuality of the fusing households and ensuing confusion, with 18 children whole, and
two extra collectively! Although this massive display screen sitcom is generally fiction, the state of affairs
is predicated on actual life. Widow/army dispensary nurse Helen North meets
widower/ Navy officer Frank Beardsley. She has 8 youngsters, he has 10. Regardless of
the overwhelming prospect of elevating these children as one household, with objections
from each side of the siblings, Helen and Frank fall in love and marry.
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| Henry Fonda as Frank Beardsley & his crew, in 1968’s “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
Melville Shavelson directed
Yours, Mine and Ours, who had a manner
with children and household on movie, in a business but good manner. Houseboat with Cary Grant and Sophia
Loren is a good instance. He additionally directed certainly one of Bob Hope’s greatest automobiles,
which concerned children, The Seven Little
Foys, to not point out Danny Kaye’s The
5 Pennies. Shavelson had some severe children cred! Regardless of the very fact Lucy
discovered this property and had her TV writers Bob Carroll, Jr. and Madelyn Davis
work on the story, Shavelson didn’t let this movie flip into The Lucy Present on the massive display screen.
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| Lucille Ball & Henry Fonda’s rapport lights up 1968’s “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
Whereas Lucy has a
variety of humorous moments, Ball additionally will get to play a heat, smart lady. Helen
North Beardsley is well Lucille Ball’s greatest latter day function. The scene the place
Lucy’s Helen offers together with her downside baby, who she thinks is simply throwing a
tantrum, however seems to be afraid that he’ll die younger like his father. This early
second made me notice that Yours, Mine
and Ours wasn’t simply going to be a chuckle fest and Lucy’s naturalistic reactions
within the storytelling are fantastic.
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| Lucy’s Helen North will get a jolt of actuality when she finds out the reason for her younger son’s tantrum, in 1968’s “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
When Frank invitations
Helen to dinner, the Beardsley boys spike her “gentle” screwdriver, and it’s
each hilarious and touching. Helen is aware of she’s making a disastrous first
impression, however can’t management herself, alternately laughing and crying. Ball
performs the comedy and pathos brilliantly.
Henry Fonda, whose
pure performing and quiet energy have been his hallmark, brings each dramatic
believability and dry humor to the Navy man attempting to boost 10 children after being
gone on obligation. Fonda has many heat moments because the dad doing the most effective he can, however
when Henry’s Frank calls consideration to
his unruly crew, it jogged my memory that off-screen Fonda wasn’t all the time heat and
cuddly.
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| Henry Fonda was 62 when he filmed “Yours, Mine and Ours.” I feel Hank & Cary Grant have been Hollywood’s golden period actors who aged greatest. |
A lot has been fabricated from
how outdated Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball have been as youthful middle-aged dad and mom. Lucy
received the brunt of the criticism, since her character has a child close to the tip of
the movie. There is no denying that they have been certainly over-aged. The actual Helen
North was in her early 30s on the time, and Frank Beardsley in his mid-40s. Yours, Mine and Ours was filmed a yr
earlier than its launch, the spring/summer season of ’67. So, Lucy was 56 and Henry Fonda
62 on the time. I feel audiences have been extra accepting, as a result of in actual life,
Lucy was a late life mom with Lucie and Desi Jr., who have been teenagers on the
time.
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| By the tip of “Yours, Mine and Ours,” the Beardsleys have their first baby collectively. |
I will say this a lot:
Mature they might have been, however Hank and Lucy have been a most tasty on-screen
couple with a heat, plausible rapport. I all the time thought Henry Fonda aged handsomely
and naturally. And whereas Lucy had been receiving the star magnificence remedy
since her sitcom went coloration, Ball was an exquisite lady, and nonetheless seemed fairly
fashionable and slim. I discover their pure faces far more nice to have a look at than
lots of in the present day’s mature stars, like Tom Cruise or Nicole Kidman, who’re
presently the ages that Fonda and Ball have been within the making of this movie.
Really, Nicole, who later performed Lucy on movie, was born the summer season Yours, Mine and Ours was filmed!
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| Henry Fonda appears good-looking in uniform & Lucille Ball remains to be beautiful right here, in 1968’s “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
Some acquainted TV baby
actor faces that a few of you might keep in mind: Eric Shea, pleasant as Helen North’s
youthful boy and Mitch Vogel as her center son. Tim Matheson performs Fonda’s
oldest son, again when he was an enthralling teen star. Suzanne Cupito, who later
grew to become Morgan Brittany, and Tracey Nelson, daughter of Ricky, each play
Beardsley’s daughters. Gary Goetzman, who later grew to become a profitable producer,
performed the freckled teen Beardsley boy. In 2021, a few of Goetzman’s anecdotes
about Yours, Mine and Ours made it to
the massive display screen in director pal Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza. Sadly, Anderson’s caricature of Lucille
Ball as Lucy Doolittle was crude and never significantly humorous.
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| Teen coronary heart throb Tim Matheson on tan show, in 1968’s “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
Additionally attention-grabbing is that
for a frothy comedy, a few of the subjects that Yours, Mine and Ours evenly touches on have been grownup: Helen’s oldest
woman getting pressured by boyfriend Ben Murphy for intercourse or the oldest Beardsley
boy (Matheson) getting drafted for the Vietnam battle.
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| Looking for groceries–an old school phrase!–with the Beardsleys, in 1968’s “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
The narration by the
stars and the occasional asides to the viewers by Henry Fonda and sarcastic
army pal Van Johnson are sudden and humorous. Tom Bosley is amusing in an
early function because the overwhelmed household physician. There’s some location taking pictures in
San Francisco and Alameda depicting the couple’s courtship and the Navy base, so
that you do not really feel trapped in a TV sitcom.
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| Lucy’s outdated MGM pal Van Johnson performs the sarcastic matchmaker in 1968’s “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
Yours, Mine and Ours nonetheless has loads of laughs, plus a heat
household story, that can each entertain and contact audiences even in the present day.
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| “How a few refrain of ‘We Want a Little Christmas?'” No, thanks, Lucy! Lucille Ball as Helen North Beardsley in 1968’s “Yours, Mine and Ours.” |
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| Lucy & Fonda in ’42’s “The Large Road.” |
Right here’s Lucille Ball
and Henry Fonda 1 / 4 of a century earlier, teamed for the primary time in
the Damon Runyon comedy-drama, The Large
Road. My take: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2022/04/lucille-ball-istic-in-big-street-1942.html
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| My look again as a Lucy fan. |
Right here’s my clear-eyed
recollections as a Lucy fan as a ‘70s child: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2021/12/id-rather-love-real-lucy.html
